i had high hopes for this as a Lynchian sort of movie, but gosh what a waste. the first scene is so Lynch it's not even funny.. a mix of inland empire and twin peaks.

This is just one of those european movies that might riff on some symbolism but ultimately ONLY exists to be "courageous" and "scandalous" in some european way, it's like Godard's later work.

let me explain. we can see the stylized bad acting in Mulholland Drive. and then Lynch blows us away with the audition scene. that proves the bad acting is on purpose. Lynch also blows us away with the churning soundtrack and the lead up to the bum, and then the bum slides into view. you could tell a thousand people what happens in that scene and it would never detract that much from the impact. The scene still has impact for us multiple viewers.

in contrast, in Holy Motors if i were to tell you that the main character bites off the fingers of some woman, then i would be telling you everything that happens. now you know. i spoiled it for you. Lynch is, in that manner of speaking, spoiler proof.

Even in Inland Empire, Lynch's most maligned work, one can marvel at Dern's performance...

I'm going to use two different movies to explain what I'm talking about. La Femme Nikita and Point of No Return, the John Badham remake. In La Femme Nikita in order to show that the main character is passionate she screams and barks like a dog during the tense early scenes of her training. What does Badham do? He inserts a Nina Simone soundtrack that does so much the same without reducing the main character to a set of histrionic cliches.

I am sure this is just cultural preference stuff.... but for me, as an american, I do appreciate the american sensibility of movie making, and I think Lynch's work benefits from him being an American.